Wartime in Winter Wonderland
by demiducky25
Summary: One-shot: The X-men clear the snow from the Mansion’s driveway and have a snowball fight in the process.


_Disclaimer: I do not own any Marvel characters; please don't sue me I am a poor college student. I am not making any money off of this and I am just writing it for the benefit of my own entertainment as well as the entertainment of the other fans out there. Also, this is a story from my own imagination, any resemblance to real life events, or even those in fiction is completely coincidental. As an additional note, there are so many fan fiction stories out there on this site as well as others, so any similarity is coincidental or great minds just happen to think alike_

_Summary-_ One-shot: The X-men clear the snow from the Mansion's driveway and have a snowball fight in the process.

_Who-_ Jubilee, Iceman, Gambit, Rogue, Wolverine, Storm, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Beast, Professor Xavier

_When-_ No real time period, but definitely after the Antarctica fiasco or Jean's most recent death, perhaps just before Storm formed the X-treme X-men team if you really want to give it a time period.

Wartime in Winter Wonderland  
_by__ demiducky25_

Jubilee sprayed a blast of mini explosions in front of her to clear away some of the snow. It felt like negative eighty degrees out and she would rather be at the mall or doing something fun instead of helping the rest of the X-men shovel the driveway and pathways of the Mansion. It takes a while to shovel the driveway of a normal sized house, but the Mansion's driveway sprawled over a great distance and the pathways winded lazily around the property like there was no tomorrow. This was suppose to be her day off, classes were cancelled due to the snow and just because it had stopped falling they all had to go outside and clean up. Couldn't the Professor just pay someone to do this for them?

Jubilee wasn't the only one bitter about being on snow patrol. The resident Southerners weren't too thrilled with the idea. Gambit hated this weather not only because he favored the warmer New Orleans weather but because the winter wonderland reminded him too much of being stranded in Antarctica, something he didn't want to remember. Rogue liked looking at snow just fine, but from the confines of the indoors with a hot cocoa in her hands or doing something fun like skiing. Shoveling snow wasn't her idea of fun, even with her super strength helping her heave snow faster than most people. Gambit was at least making it interesting by making bets with Wolverine on how much snow each of his cards could melt. Wolverine loved this weather, partly because it reminded him of peaceful times spent hunting in a cabin in the Northern Canadian wilderness but also because many people hated it and that spite helped him enjoy it more. Iceman truly loved this weather, perhaps because he was perfectly comfortable in cold weather wearing less layers of clothing than the other team members but mainly because it made him feel like a kid again. The rest of the X-men who were out there today, Beast, Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Storm neither liked nor hated this weather. They just worked diligently on clearing the snow in their own ways.

Iceman should have been clearing a pathway around the back of the Mansion, instead he was forming a snowman that looked eerily like himself.

"There you are good-looking. The perfect decoy for what I have planned."

He noticed that Jubilee looked pretty upset about being out there. Being the youngest X-man present he wanted her to enjoy it instead of being so down. And what he had planned was intended to bring out the child in everyone that was there. He snuck around to the front where everyone else was. He formed a snowball in his hands and heaved it at the young X-man. It hit her squarely in the back and she swerved around to face him.

"HEY! Bobby, what the heck was that all about," she screamed at him.

He formed another and threw it, this time hitting her shoulder. "Just seeing what you're made of. Got what it takes to beat me?"

Jubilee bent down and picked up a wad of snow shaping it into a snowball. She then threw it hitting Iceman in the head.

Smiling from his desired reaction Iceman said, "Oh you know this means war."

"Drake, cut it out," Cyclops warned hoping to calm the situation down before it got worse. Unfortunately for him, it didn't work. He was met with a snowball in the face thrown by Wolverine, causing Jean to break down laughing.

"You heard what he said Cyke," Wolverine stated. "This is war and I never back down from a fight."

Rogue took the opportunity to take the load of snow in her shovel, fly up, and dump it on an unsuspecting Gambit's head.

"_MERDE_, _Chere_! Dat's cold," he exclaimed as she landed on the opposite side of the driveway giggling.

At this point it seemed like the entire point of shoveling snow to clear the driveway went out the window, especially when Storm created a gentle snowfall to provide more ammunition and Iceman decided to ice up the driveway to make it a slick trap for anyway daring to cross it. This icetrap divided the X-men in half. Iceman, Wolverine, Rogue, and Cyclops were on one side and Gambit, Jubilee, Storm, Jean, and Beast on the other side.

Both teams huddled to formulate a plan of attack. Cyclops immediately took control of his team. "All right people; let's use this as a training opportunity." Wolverine glared at him, snowball in hand. "Or we can just have fun," the leader continued with a sheepish grin. "But I do have a strategic idea if you want to hear it." The team gathered closer around their fearless leader lest the other team hear what they had to say.

On the other side of the driveway Storm took control of her team, having Jean, Beast, and Jubilee cause a distraction at the frontlines. Beast used both his hands and feet to hurl snow across the driveway, Jean mentally fired snowballs in rapid succession, while Jubilee did things the old fashion way. Storm and Gambit made their way around the back of the Mansion hoping to sneak up on the other team.

But the other team had the same idea. During the fray Rogue and Wolverine snuck away around back while Iceman and Cyclops did their best to hold Storm's team at bay.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

While the battle on the frontlines raged on, action was also taking place around the back of the Mansion where Wolverine and Rogue were both in a tree, surveying the landscape for "the enemy." The Iceman-snowman that Bobby created earlier served as the perfect decoy, looking like a perfect clone of the X-man in his iced-up form.

"Logan," Rogue said pointing behind a bush, "Here they come!"

Sure enough Gambit and Storm emerged from behind the bush. "Hit him hard Stormy," Gambit exclaimed gesturing to "Iceman" across the lawn. Storm complied by conjuring up a blast of icy winds which knocked "Iceman" over. Gambit ran up to the fallen "enemy," taking note of the fact that his head had fallen off. Realizing it was a decoy he shouted over to Storm, "Gambit told you t'hit him hard, but maybe you went a lil' overboard, non?" He grinned, propping himself up on his bo-staff, getting ready to light a cigarette. He might not have seemed to notice his attacker dropping from the sky above him, but he knew, after all he was his team's decoy. The minute Storm flew up into the air he knew that someone was about to drop down on top of him, and he rolled out of the way, snowball in hand, ready to face the "enemy" who was also armed with a snowball.

"Well, well _Chere_, tryin' t'get de old drop on Gambit? You know you can't out sneak a t'ief. Af'er all…"

He was silenced by a snowball to the face. "Quit talking Swamp Rat and start fightin'! This snow will melt 'fore you finish…" Gambit threw a snowball at her and began to run, but Rogue quickly regained her composure and flew after the Cajun, picking him up and depositing him into a pile of snow on the front lawn where the others were. When Storm had flown up in the back yard she managed to pick up Wolverine out of the tree and bring him back to the front yard where the two of them were currently involved in an intense snowball fight of their own. While the X-men were busy battling it out in the front yard they failed to notice that Professor Xavier, bundled up complete with a warm blanket and woolen cap, had made his way outside and was staring at the fray curiously.

"What is going on out here," said Professor Xavier.

His reply was a snowball that knocked the woolen cap off his head, revealing his bald head to the elements. Iceman walked over to see if the Professor was alright. The X-men all looked in shock at the one who threw it at their mentor.

"Sorry Professor Xavier," Cyclops said sheepishly, clearly embarrassed. "I guess I was just caught up in the moment.

"It's alright Scott," Xavier said while mentally asking Bobby to form some ammo in his lap which he did since he stood in front of the Professor, blocking the other X-men's view of him. "There's just one thing though…" Bobby stepped out of the way as the Professor hurled a snowball at Cyclops. "…this means WAR!"

With that team alliances broke down and began hurling snowballs at each other, not caring that they might look ridiculous, a group of adults frolicking in the snow like children until they were either too cold or too tired to play any longer.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After the fight ended the X-men gathered inside the Mansion to sip hot chocolate, warm up, and enjoy each other's company. Well, except for Cyclops and Jean who made their way up to the room they shared as husband and wife to warm up in their own way.

Gambit and Rogue sat on a loveseat facing the window, watching the snowfall, off in their own world. Rogue held a mug of hot chocolate in her hands while Gambit had his arms around her, whispering sweet nothings in her ear, every now and then resulting in a giggle or her cheeks blushing.

Wolverine, Storm, and Beast recounted the earlier events of the snowball fight to Professor Xavier from before he joined the skirmish.

Empty mug in hand, Jubilee headed into the kitchen where Iceman had just finished heating up another pot of hot chocolate. After Iceman poured his mug he handed the pot over to Jubilee so she could pour hers.

"Hey Bobby," said Jubilee as she poured herself another mug of cocoa. "Thanks, you know, for everything. I think we all needed that."

Iceman smiled, "I know. Sometimes we just need to forget the world around us and just be carefree children again, if only for a short time."

She smiled back at him and pulled a bag of marshmallows out of hiding from the back of a cabinet. He looked at her in surprise, when she helped make the hot chocolate she announced to everyone that they were out of marshmallows. She added some into both their mugs. "I won't tell anyone if you won't," she added with a sly smile.

They looked at each other and laughed.

**_The End_**


End file.
